Macromedia Studio MX: A Bird's-Eye View

Michael Hurwicz presents a high-level view of Studio MX and what each of the Studio MX programs can do. Michael also provides a quick tour of Studio MX and environs and a guide for determining which tools and features you might use for a particular project.

Studio MX: Choosing Your Tools

Studio MX 2004 represents an incredibly rich array of capabilities,
reflecting the variety of Web sites and applications developers are called upon
to create. Any particular Web site or Internet application is likely to use only
a small subset of these capabilities. Some Studio MX features address common
requirements, such as displaying pages containing words and/or images and
navigating those pages. Others address specialized or advanced needs, such as
displaying dynamic data, playing video and audio, or applying cinematic effects
such as fade-ins and fade-outs.

In some cases, the choice of tool is clear. For video and audio, for example,
use Flash. This chapter covers situations where you have more choices.

This chapter presents a high-level view of Studio MX, as well as some
associated products, and what each of the Studio MX programs can do. This
chapter also does double duty as a quick tour of Studio MX and environs, and as
a guide for determining which tools and features you might use for a particular
project. (I'll be talking as if you will be using all these tools yourself.
Obviously, tasks may be divided up among the team members. However, the
association of task to tool remains the same.)

There's a certain amount of overlap in what the Studio MX programs do.
For those common functions, which program you choose for a given task may be
mostly a matter of taste or experience. That's sometimes the case when
choosing drawing tools, for instance.

At the same time, each of the programs clearly has unique strengths and
limitations. Using the best tool for the job will help you work faster and
provide more value to your client and the people accessing your site.